Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball

Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball

DVD cover
Directed by P.J. Pesce
Produced by
Screenplay by
  • Olatunde Osunsanmi
  • Olumide Odebunmi
  • Tom Abrams
  • P.J. Pesce
Story by
  • Olatunde Osunsanmi
  • Olumide Odebunmi
  • Joe Carnahan
Based on Characters
by Joe Carnahan
Starring
Music by Tim Jones
Cinematography David Geddes
Edited by Angela M. Catanzaro
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Release dates
  • January 19, 2010 (2010-01-19)
Running time
 86 minutes
Country Canada
United States
Language English

Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball is a 2010 Canadian-American action crime film directed by P.J. Pesce and starring Tom Berenger, Vinnie Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Autumn Reeser and Ernie Hudson.[1]

The film is a prequel to Joe Carnahan's 2006 film Smokin' Aces.[1] The film centers on an FBI desk jockey who is targeted for murder by various hired assassins. The film was produced by Working Title Films, and was released direct-to-video on January 19, 2010 by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Plot

Set before the events of the first film and death of Buddy "Aces" Israel. Walter Weed is an unassuming desk jockey at the FBI when the Bureau uncovers a plot to assassinate him. Mysterious Hal Leuco has hired several assassins to take out Weed on April 19 at exactly 3:00am. These include Ariella Martinez, a femme fatale who kills her victims with exotic poisons; Finbar McTeague who is also known as "The Surgeon", who brutally tortures his victims; the Southern Tremor family consisting of father Fritz and children; Lester, Kaitlyn, Baby Boy, and finally Lazlo Soot, from the first film, who is a master of disguise assassin.

An FBI unit, led by Special Agent Zane Baker secures Weed in a Chicago lounge called the: "Little Jazz After Hours Club." The bar, run by Special Agent Malcolm Little has a bunker deep below it and several lines of defense stand between the assassins and Weed, locked down inside of it with Baker and Agents Nicholas and Redstone. On the surface, Agent Dominic Dumare, Little, Abrego, Salerno, and an entire unit of FBI agents act as patrons or staff at the bar. The assassins enter the city in separate manners, all ready to meet the 3am deadline. McTeague and Martinez meet in the bar while the Tremors kill the agents on the roof across from the bar and prepare to storm the bar. Soot kills Agent Dumare in his hotel room and disguises himself as him, allowing him access to the bunker.

Eight minutes before the deadline, McTeague and Martinez working together create a hostage situation where McTeague holds Martinez hostage, creating a Mexican standoff between the assassins and the FBI agents. The standoff escalates when the Tremors fire a clown with a bomb strapped to him through the bar doors. A shootout ensues; however, the agents and the assassins are unable to kill each other. Martinez breaks cover and kills some of the agents including Salerno, before being shot and wounded. McTeague takes her to a closet where he cradles her as she dies. At this point, the Tremors break into the bar, firing heavy machine guns and killing all of the agents save for Little who escapes. McTeague, angry at Martinez's death fights Baby Boy, attaching an explosive to him before being gunned down by Lester and Fritz; the explosive that explodes within the body then kills Baby Boy.

Meanwhile, Soot has escaped the firefight and still disguised as Dumare, convinces Abrego to let him into the secure area. He then double-crosses Abrego and kills him. Before he dies, Abrego manages to pull off Soot's mask, ruining his disguise. The Tremors breach the elevator and kill the last remaining agents outside of the bunker. Soot takes an agent hostage and threatens to kill him unless Baker opens the bunker door, but Baker refuses. At the same time, the Tremors fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the door, which Soot narrowly escapes.

Kaitlyn, who has penetrated the tunnels next to the bunker, blows a hole in it and starts firing on the agents inside, trying to kill Weed. Nicholas is killed protecting him just before Baker shoots and kills Kaitlyn. With only two minutes to go, Weed suddenly tries to open the bunker door and reveals he has C4 hidden under his wheelchair and is rigged to a dead man switch. Redstone tries to shoot Weed but is wounded by Baker who attempts to talk Weed down. Weed says that he must die to kill the assassins, who have committed heinous acts against America and that by blowing himself up, Weed will be hailed as a patriotic hero for killing the assassins when he dies.

Realising Weed will not back down, Baker drags the wounded Redstone to the "spider trap", a hole in the bunker's floor, which can be used to safeguard people from the bunker collapsing. Weed detonates the C4, destroying both the bunker and the bar. Baker is unable to get Redstone into the spider trap and can only save himself. Fritz is critically wounded by the bomb and begs for help from Lester, who coldly kills him for abusing him for years.

Not long after, Baker emerges from the spider trap and comes out of the ruins of the bar to find emergency services securing the area, with only Little and Baker surviving out of the FBI agents. Baker is approached by Special Agent Anthony Vejar who asks him if he saw Weed die, telling him that Vejar's unit believes that Weed was also Hal Leuco who works for a CIA elite black ops unit. With a combined career in both the FBI and CIA, Weed/Leuco was able to access information about the assassins and used them for covert missions over the years, allegedly for patriotic interest.

Posing as Leuco, he hired the assassins to kill Weed so he could gather them all in one place and have them kill each other or be killed by the FBI. Baker realises that Weed/Leuco is still alive after Vejar mentions that Hal Leuco is short for Haliaeetus leucocephalus, bald eagle's scientific name, which was part of a playing card set Weed played with in the bunker. Weed/Leuco is shown to be alive and gets into a car. As he drives off, however, he is shot and killed by Baker who then walks away. Lester Tremor and Lazlo Soot are also shown to have escaped the blast and walk away from the scene.

Cast

References

  1. 1 2 "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball". The New York Times.
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